Images

This aerial view of the western part of Kīlauea Volcano's caldera was taken on August 6, 2018. The down-dropped block is faulted about 120 m (400 feet) below the caldera floor. Many 19th-century lava flows are exposed in the fault scarps. Halema‘uma‘u (not visible) is to the left of this photo. USGS photo by D.Swanson.

USGS Research Geologist Dr. Erika Lentz is conducting real-time kinematic GPS surveys on barrier island dunes, part of her research looking at how coastal landscapes respond to sea-level rise.

Following the draining of magma from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō on April 30, 2018, the crater was roughly 356 meters (1168 feet) deep. The upper part of the crater was flaring, with the deepest portion a narrower cylindrical shaft.

Explosive eruption columns of ash rising from Halema‘uma‘u at 11:15 a.m. on May 18, 1924 (top) and at 11:05 a.m. on May 15, 2018 (bottom) look similar.

COAWST model prediction on September 13, 2018 at 17:00:00. Arrows are wind speed and direction and colors are wave heights in meters. 

The video was taken during an overflight of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater on Kīlauea's middle East Rift Zone. No major changes were observed, but the crater shape continues to change due to continued rockfalls.

The USGS Coastal Change Hazards Storm Team has forecast coast-wide levels of beach erosion, inundation and overwash due to Hurricane Florence's expected path and landgfall.

The Coastal Change Hazards Storm Team has forecast changing water levels at specific locations over time.

A USGS hydrologic scientist installs a storm-tide sensor near the North Carolina coast as Hurricane Florence approaches.

USGS oceanographer Shawn Harrison stands on the coastal bluff of Barter Island, Alaska at sunset. Shawn and his fellow researchers are studying how the highly erosive bluff changes under the varied conditions experienced by this stretch of coastline.

USGS personnel on the deck of the R/V Hugh R.

Landsat-8 nighttime thermal infrared image from April 2017 showing the Tern Lake area. In Yellowstone, temperatures are extremely cold at night in the winter, and most lakes are frozen (dark pixels). West Tern Lake seems to be thawing here - perhaps it receives some thermal waters from nearby hot springs.

View into Halema‘uma‘u from the west rim of Kīlauea's summit caldera. USGS photo: J. Kauahikaua, 03 March 2019

Aerial view due south of the Mono Lake-Long Valley volcanic region. Inset map shows locations of latest Pleistocene–Holocene silicic magmatic centers relative to Long Valley caldera. Rhyolites of the Mono–Inyo chain are shown in pink, and the dacitic–rhyodacitic Mammoth Mountain dome complex is shown in blue. U.S.

Huckleberry Ridge Tuff deposit exposed on Mt. Everts, near the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park. The deposit was created by ash falling from the plume early in the eruption sequence, 2.08 million years ago. Photo by Madison Myers, Montana State University.

This ‘a‘ā flow erupted from fissure 8 on Kīlauea Volcano's lower East Rift Zone on June 1, 2018, shows how the interior of a lava flow remains incandescently hot even though surface cooling forms a crust of solid rubble.

A USGS pilot and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory gas geochemist prepare to conduct a test flight of an unmanned aerial system (UAS) on Kīlauea Volcano in November 2018. This UAS was outfitted with a prototype miniaturized multi-gas sensor for the detection of volcanic gases emitted by Kīlauea, including sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide.

Cover of the 2018 publication, "California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment: Statewide Summary Report."

Atlantic spotted dolphins photographed near the R/V Hugh R. Sharp on August 27, 2018 by the protected species visual observers.

Two views from the Rainbow Falls overlook, downstream of the Wailuku River streamgage near Hilo, Hawaii. The image on the left shows a typical base flow of about 35 cubic feet per second (cfs). The image on the right shows the early impact of Hurricane Lane with a flow of about 26,000 cfs taken at 8:35 a.m. HST, August 23, 2018. This U.S.

Many of the earthquakes in Hawaii that extend offshore and up the island chain are due to plate bending, or flexure. The upper panel shows magnitude-5 and greater earthquakes since 1861, with some notable events labeled.